4.) Had a direct affect on driver "behavior" or reactions in the heat of the moment. Stick a microphone in an angry drivers face now and you can hear the switch flipping as they transform into a politically correct marketing machine instead of what they really want to say.

5.) Hyped Cup drivers running in Busch races so much that it has contributed to the demise of a true Busch Series.

6.) Too much dumbing-down and re-capping of the broadcast in attempts to attract "new fans" or those with out the commitment to watch from the beginning of the broadcast.

7.) Ruined race coverage in favor of telling a story. It's a race, not a fairy tale. Each race is approached with a coverage strategy that is determined before they even issue the command to start engines. Used to be that coverage was on the fly and determined by what was happening ON the track by the WHOLE group of drivers.

8.) Mysterious "TV Timeout" debris cautions when a race gets too boring for their story to be told properly.

9.) Encouraged NASCAR to switch races to Saturday nights. Not only has it directly contributed to the decline of local short track racing, but the damn races run far too late in the evening!

10.) Here's another positive. With the increased coverage by TV came increased popularity and acceptance by the American public. Now I don't feel like such and outcast if someone finds out I'm a racefan. :-)

Picking 'storylines' for each race, which are totally irrelevant. As a cpmsequence, they 'cover' what feeds into their 'storyline', ignoring everything else.

Excellent point, Sally! Thanks for mentioning that! Here's what I came up with last night when we were in the chat:

My top 10: 1-DW2-Pointers 3-tickers 4-too many commercials 5-showing only the chosen few6-showing the ones whose sponsors pay more 7-later race starts 8-too many night races9-BBB10-too much show and not enough racing.

I'd like to add one more (since I can't limit mine to 10 either, Sally). The biggest affect on racing that I see is the fact TV talked NASCAR into moving "happy hour" to Saturday mornings so they can package the two segments into a made-for-TV thing. Really stupid! It's an injustice to the fans AT the track. If they want to see Happy Hour, they have to get to the track at 9:30 in the morning, for a Busch Race that probably doesn't start till 1 or 3 p.m. All for the sake of TV. In the past, Happy Hour was run after the Busch Race and then fans who couldn't afford tickets to a Cup race could at least see the Cup drivers. Of course, now most of them are IN the Busch race, so I guess that logic isn't valid. But it's still wrong for TV to "materially" alter the weekend schedule.

Sorry, but right now, I can't think of a single positive thing Fox and NBC have added to the broadcasts.

--Overuse of the ticker. We see one at the beginning of the race as the only way to see the starting lineup, one at the end as the only way to find out where everyone finishes, and of course, all race long.--Analysts who wish they were participants. It's natural to miss the sport you were a part of, but get over it, accept it, and move on!--"Pay to play." The 2001 "missing sponsors" debacle was confined to one race, but the general concept remains. Want to make sure your driver is mentioned? Either earn it by contending for the win, or pay oodles of cash.--Use of hype similar to WWE wrestling on pre-race shows.--The use of Chris Myers and Jeanne Zelasko on race coverage. (***Deleted by moderator***)--Use of two "manufacturers' representatives" (Waltrip brothers) on telecasts without the appropriate disclosures.--Announcers too easily spread the NASCAR gospel. Little if any discussion of its problems and how to solve them. Also, any opinions expressed during these rare discussions are clearly the opinions of NASCAR.--Camera shots that are used only for advertising purposes, whether they are in the car or above the track.--Every commercial break (especially on Fox) features annoying music videos.--No one even thinks about using "side by side." People are startled to hear that it's possible, thanks to the IndyCar telecasts.

1. They don't announce the starting line up. This encourages viewers to follow the announcers for favorite drivers.

2. They only talk about their favorite drivers and try to let us know we should be happy with that. Too much bias.

3. They don't always tell us who is out of the race or who returns after problems.

4. They show way too many replays and recaps. Plus that infernal music they use to lead into the recaps... :evil:

5. Pre race show is usually a lot of b.s. in my opinion.

6. Hollywood Hotel and the 10 laps with...

7. Announcers thinking they are more important than the drivers and that they know what happened before they see replays.

8. DW and his mouth.

9. Showing too many in car shots and thinking this gives us a sense of being in the car.

10. Too many shots of one car alone on the track.

Plus there are so many other things that make me just want to scream at times. I guess my biggest pet peeve is the no announcement of the starting line up. I occasionally watch with my grandchildren and they get hurt when they don't hear certain names because they sometimes hear parents or friends talking about certain drivers who aren't privy to be in the famous bias club of the announcers.

The good news is that there are plenty of racing shows that will capture all the happenings and interviews if we wish to miss the broadcast of DW's mouth and opinions.

Okay, I just went back and read everyone's posts like Lou suggested we not do until we did our own. I was a good girl.

I really liked Lou's #5 and Cheryl's #'s 9 and 10. And Desmond made some good points but since I am in edit mode I 'm gonna have to go back and check to see what he and Sally said that impressed me.

Back again...Des mentioned the camera shots just to get in extra advertising and the missing disclosure of the Waltrip brothers. Sally mentioned the hype of story lines for each race. Yep, all pit roads are the most dangerous....

I'm not done but I'm stopping with my remarks as I am getting irritated just thinking about all the crap they do these days.

Here are mine With out any attempt to rank pos/neg; !-Money, money, money; 2-Has resulted in larger crowds at the tracks; 3-Has brought out "show off tendencies" in some people associated with racing, DW is the most extreme example; 4-Has resulted in the abandoning of some good race tracks; 5-Money, money, money; 6-Has attracted the mainstream media to racing--there is a racing related article in our local paper almost every day now; 7-has dramitically reduced any privacy which the drivers might have had; 8-has resulted in the development of younger, better looking, more marketable drivers; 9-has exposed many more people to racing; 10-money, money, money!!!! :-D

I never minded feeling "alone" in my love of racing. As I said, I've never been a "follower" of trends. I'd gladly trade any derison by my co-workers, etc. in exchange for the good racing and good TV coverage we had back in the late 80s and 90s.

And I always felt as if I had a secret...some of the most fun you could have, watching Nascar. I rather pitied those too ignorant to discover just how much fun racing was. Now everyone and their brother has jumped on the bandwagon, and it's not half so much fun.

Now everyone and their brother has jumped on the bandwagon, and it's not half so much fun.

The racing just ain't the same and the way Nascar runs the series is so out of whack these days that it is no longer the way it was when it was so much fun. Eveybody who has jumped on the bandwagon lately have no idea what the bandwagon was like years ago when it was fun.

Now everyone and their brother has jumped on the bandwagon, and it's not half so much fun.

The racing just ain't the same and the way Nascar runs the series is so out of whack these days that it is no longer the way it was when it was so much fun. Eveybody who has jumped on the bandwagon lately have no idea what the bandwagon was like years ago when it was fun.

I recommend Speed Channel's Back in the Day to those bandwagon-hoppers.

It has old racing footage (from when it was fun) and it is hosted by a familiar face, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

After the hoppers see this, none of them will be able to believe what passes for "racing" these days.

Not to raise the ire of the DE fans, but I just couldn't stomach that show the one time I accidentially caught it. All those "pop culture" pop-ups just ruinied it for me. If he wanted to honor the history with these old races, he wouldn't have allowed all that stuff to infringe on the racing. I liked those old races SO much better when they were shown in their original form on the old Speedvision. Anybody remember what I'm talking about? Every Monday night, they'd show an old Darlington race. Not that was cool IMHO...